Monday, August 9, 2010

It's a sad thing to behold, but apparently a necessary evil given the state of things: in this video, Ted Olsen, one of the attorneys who successfully litigated on behalf of marriage equality in the recent proposition 8 trial, gives a basic lesson in civics to a FauxNews hack, Chris Wallace:

Individual rights are not, and should not be, subject to majority rule. If 50% + 1 -- or even 100% -- of voters want slavery, censorship of newspapers, or a mandatory form of worship, it is out of bounds under our system of law. The majority's wishes do not dictate the legal outcome when it comes to fundamental individual rights, and the right to marry is a long-recognized individual right.

It's not complicated; at the same time, it's not a recipe for making everyone happy. We do not have a right to like the outcomes of judicial rulings.

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I try to be awake, and if I can manage that, to be reasonable. "With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence. But there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful manner touched and disconcerted me. I began to reason with him." My e-mail is dances with anxiety [at] gmail dot com.